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Title: Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview by J. P. Moreland, William Lane Craig ISBN: 0-8308-2694-7 Publisher: Intervarsity Press Pub. Date: April, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (10 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Disappointment
Comment: The authors are two Baptist professors of philosophy at the evangelical Talbot school of theology. The present thick book (654 p.) is mostly a compilation of summaries or passages from the authors' earlier works in philosophy. For those like me who have already read their works, the potential interest of this book would be the successful integration of their earlier works into a worldview, that is a consistent view and in particular into a Christian one, given the commitment of the authors to the intellectual defense of Christianity. How do they succeed?
First of all let us think of the organisation of the book. In Anglo-Saxon countries the academic world is "organised" according to positivism, in the sense that all academic fields (except the natural and possibly social) fields have been excluded from "science", unlike Europe, where universities, due to a lesser positivist influence, still have faculties called "religious sciences", "human sciences", etc. In a similar manner, in Anglo-Saxon countries, in philosophy, the topic of "God" has been excluded from metaphysics, and is found in the field of "philosophy of religion". As the present book is directed at Christians and not mainstream readers, I was hoping the authors would not follow the positivist view. Unfortunately they failed by uncritically organising their book according to positivism, even to the point of restricting "science" to the "natural sciences", and moving out of the metaphysics section major metaphysical questions (realism, God, space and time...)!
Secondly let us look at the integration of views expressed in the book. Critical readers know that the different views emitted by Craig in his various apologetics arguments contradict each other. I was expecting Craig to have worked on solving this when making this book. Instead the book is replete with contradictions.
One example of inconsistency is about divine omniscience. Craig still rejects omniscience (favoring instead middle-knowledge, a doctrine I think wrong), but when trying to defend exclusivism (the view that humans who did not get a chance to hear the gospel go to hell!), he argues that God knows about each human if he/she will believe or not the gospel so that God places those would-be believers at a place where they will hear it... which requires God to be omniscient! (BTW exclusivism was not a belief of the early church, I would rather have expected some major Christian doctrines such as deification / theologal virtues).
Another example of inconsistency is about relativity. In his discussion of time, Craig rejects (wrongfully in my opinion) the B-Theory of time, and then also Einstein's relativity!!! Yet he uses Einstein's relativity in his cosmological argument!!!
Finally it is quite disappointing , not to say irritating, to see how little work Craig put into this book. Much of his contributions consists in cutting and pasting what he wrote elsewhere, even the introduction of the present book, taken from the introduction of his book Reasonable Faith. Moreover Craig's style is sometimes unworthy of a philosopher, being rather rhetorical (e. g. he writes that "fatalism INFECTED..."). Some of Craig's contributions are simply entirely misleading (the "philosophy of space and time" deals only with time!) or show no improvements. For example, why can't he see that proponents of the B-Theory of time don't have to see their experience as irrational, but only as relative to their moving along the time dimension in which they are stuck (unlike an omniscient creator who would see the time-line in an absolute manner). Or how can Craig still reject Einstein's relativity and accept instead Lorentzian relativity, the latter implying a "mischievous" epistemology as he himself concedes (and why not then think that the world or our existence is an illusion if we are to be so deluded?)
In conclusion, as Craig has not solved the contradictions between his different Christian apologetics arguments, nor solved some other problems, this book lacks consistency and credibility and therefore fails at providing a plausible worldview. After reading this book, I think even more that Craig is more interested in converting people than in making good philosophy, I am afraid to say. A better integration can be found in the works of the Baptist thinker Norman Geisler (even if I think he is wrong about issues such the making of the Christian canon and inerrancy), probably because Geisler has used the resources of thomistic philosophy, the cathedral of Christian thought built by Thomas Aquinas.
The present book may however be useful for those who want to get an overview of the authors' works, before possibly reading their specific books or papers (but beware of the kinds of problems I mentioned above). I must add that I did not find Moreland's contributions problematic (but only Craig's), so that I still give three stars to the book.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Foundational Book Providing a Foundation for Christians
Comment: J.P. Moreland and William Lane Craig, both currently teaching at Biola University have collaborated on a philosophical encyclopedia of sorts to introduce philosophy and logic to the Christian public. This book is written for people who may have had no philosophy, a little philosophy or maybe as a quick reference resource for those who have had intermediate or advanced training.
Philosophers, whether one likes it or not, have contributed, both for good and bad, to such an extent in this world that knowing basic terms, ideas, arguments, and ideas is essential for Christians so that we can dialogue with others, including other Christians who may have a different perspective on a Varity of issues.
The first chapter is brilliant in introducing certain terms and ideas as expressed in the arena of ideas. If there is a weak chapter, it is the next one which is on argumentation and logic. It is actually very good, but in comparison to Geisler's and Brooks' "Come Let Us Reason", it comes up a little short; but I throw this in there, just to point out, that its weakest chapter is actually very good.
The book deals very well with Skepticism and metaphysics. Also they tackle some ideas that many Christians assume are axiomatic, however, many skeptics have serious questions and chapters like "Personal Identity and Life After Death," "Scientific Methodology," the chapters on ethics are just outstanding. While they only scratch the surface in these discussions, they do so in a way that provides a full content of information for the reader has a well rounded backdrop for further study or even conversation.
Rating: 4
Summary: Recommendations
Comment: For several superb works on Christian philosophy, I recommend the following. Search for them on the web (many free materials are available from these authors).
Gordon Clark (Trinity Foundation):
- An Introduction to Christian Philosophy
- A Christian View of Men and Things
- Religion, Reason, and Revelation
Vincent Cheung (Reformation Ministries International):
- Systematic Theology
- Ultimate Questions
- Presuppositional Confrontations
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Title: Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics by William Lane Craig ISBN: 0891077642 Publisher: Crossway Books Pub. Date: July, 1994 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Love Your God With All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul by James Porter Moreland, Dallas Willard ISBN: 1576830160 Publisher: Navpress Pub. Date: July, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Philosophy of Religion: A Reader and Guide by William Lane Craig, Michael Murray, J. P. Moreland ISBN: 0813531217 Publisher: Rutgers University Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Scaling the Secular City: A Defense of Christianity by J. P. Moreland ISBN: 0801062225 Publisher: Baker Book House Pub. Date: July, 1987 List Price(USD): $18.99 |
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Title: Worldview: The History of a Concept by David K. Naugle, Arthur Frank Holmes ISBN: 0802847617 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Pub. Date: July, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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